Tag Archive for world snooker championships

Higgins Takes Lead into Second Session

The semi finals of the 2009 Betfred.com World Snooker Championships started yesterday afternoon with twice former World Champion, John Higgins against rising Northern Irish talent, Mark Allen.

Allen has been playing some of the best snooker of his career after already having dispatched Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ryan Day. This session started well, Allen winning the first frame, however Higgins came back and handn’t even looked as if he was playing at his best. He lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.

In the interval the players spoke to the tournament director about the less-than-adequate table conditions, aparantly caused by increased humidity. This led to a very hot iron and a complete change of balls at the halfway point in the session.

The table played better in the latter half and Higgins extended his lead to 6-2, this match continues this morning from 10.00.

Honours Even With Robertson and Murphy.

The other World Champion still in the draw, Shaun Murphy, had a very tight session against Australian Neil Robertson. The match will continue at 14.00 today with the score at 4-4. There were six breaks over 50 with Murphy winning this stat 4-2.

Hendry Makes 9th Career Maximum 147 Break

40-year-old 7 times world champion, Stephen Hendry, this morning compiled a maximum 147 break at the Crucible.

His career 9th maximum came in the 7th frame of his quarter-final against Shaun Murphy, who came straight out of his chair to congratulate the Scot. The break is worth a whopping £157,000 unless someone can match it in the remaining days of this years championships.

The form Hendry is showing in this years championships is far better than the pre-tournament 66-1 odds were suggesting and he now takes a 5-3 lead into this evening’s second session.

In this morning’s other quarter final, Mark Allen leads Welshman Ryan Day by the same 5-3 scoreline.

Watch Hendry’s last few shots here: Hendry Fires in Maximum 147 Break.

Snooker: Day Six Complete at The Crucible

Day six saw the completion of the first round as both a former champion and the world number 2 eased through.

Former World Champion John Higgins playing what I thought would be a tricky tie against Michael Holt was thouroughly in control throughout and went into round two with a 10-5 victory. His opponent in round two will be Jamie Cope.

World Number 2, Maguire went through by the same 10-5 scoreline against fellow Scot, Jamie Burnett. This was their first professional encounter since December. The December match shrouded in the controversy of irregular betting patterns, something that is still under investigation.

Maguire will now play Mark King in round 2.

The first matches to start in round 2 were the matches between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Allen, this one ended 4-4 after the first session, and Ronnie looked out-of-sorts with Allen playing some good snooker early on.

In the other second match, Stephen Hendry came up against a re-energised potting machine in Ding Junhui. The score was 3-1 in Ding’s favour at the interval only for Hendry to come back fresh after the break to level the match at 4-4.

Both of these ties are poised nicely for the second session. Don’t forget in round two it is now best of 25 frames.

Whats Happening in the Snooker?

This!

Ronnie O’Sullivan 10 v  5 Stuart Bingham

Mark Allen 10 v 6 Martin Gould

Peter Ebdon 3 v 5 Nigel Bond

Ryan Day v Stephen Lee

John Higgins v Michael Holt

Joe Perry 5 v 4 Jamie Cope

Graeme Dott 10 v 8 Barry Hawkins

Mark Selby 10 v 6 Ricky Waldon

Shaun Murphy 0 v 1 Andrew Higginson

Marco Fu 10 v 4 Joe Swail

Ding Junhui 10 v 8 Liang Wenbo

Stephen Hendry 10 v 7 Mark Williams

Ali Carter 10 v 5 Gerard Greene

Neil Robertson v Steve Davis

Mark King 10 v 6 Rory McLeod

Stephen Maguire v Jamie Burnett

Players in Bold are into round 2, matches in italics are currently playing or concluding later.

What Do You Notice?

I find it quite intresting that as yet none of the seeded players have been eliminated from this years World Snooker Championships. I am not sure on the reason but it seems those players in the top 16 are wanting this one very badly, we have not even had a match go the full distance yet either. There are plenty of matches left yet so lots of chance for a first round shock.

I would like to see a few shocks going into round 2 as when they reach that stage anything can happen. Davis has a chance against Robertson over the longer match distance and Jamie Cop against Joe Perry will be very close. Stephen Lee could be a very tough test for Welshman Ryan Day as well.

Exciting stuff, any thoughts?

Day Two at the Crucible

First up this morning on the Live Snooker front is the continuation of the Mark and Rory McLeod match from yesterday. I choose the word continuation as this is supposed to be the concluding session, but after being pulled off at 3-3 each yesterday it is highly unlikely (I think) that this one will be finished before the afternoon session!

On the other table is Mark Allen against Crucible newbie, Martin Gould. At the moment Northern Irish hope Allen leads 2-0.

The rest of todays action:

14.30

  • Mark Selby (Eng) v Ricky Walden (Eng)
  • Ali Carter (Eng) 6 v 3 Gerard Greene (NI)

19.00

  • Stephen Hendry (Sco) 4 v 5 Mark Williams (Wal)
  • Graeme Dott (Sco) 4 v 5 Barry Hawkins (Eng)

Today will see the conclusion of four matches with the one I will be looking out for being the Hendry-Williams encounter. Great quality by these two former champions yesterday and it will be close all the way in my opinion.

O’Sullivan First Man into Round Two

Ronnie O’Sullivan is the first man through to the second round of the 2009 BetFred.com World Snooker Championships. The defending champion served up some brilliant snooker en route to a 10-5 victory over Stuart Bingham.

Amongst the balls both players looked very solid with O’Sullivan notching up 3 centuries, the pinnacle a 140 and Bingham picking up one himself. There were a further 8 breaks over 50 in a match of some very quality break building.

The biggest shock was O’Sullivans ability at distance – at one point his long pot success rate was as low as 35% – this allowed Bingham to get into the balls on two back-to-back occasions, something he took gleefully knocking in 100 and 97 breaks.

The rest of todays scores:

  • Hendry 4 v 5 Williams
  • Dott 4 v 5 Hawkins
  • King 3 v 3 McLeod
  • Carter 3 v 1 Greene (as I type, still playing first session)